


And As the Walls Come Down

by the_genderman



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alteration, Canon Divergence - Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, HYDRA captured Steve after the fight on the bridge but Sam and Natasha got away, There's a hint of SamSteve at the end if you squint, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 21:57:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 12,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14318007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_genderman/pseuds/the_genderman
Summary: What if, after the fight against the Winter Soldier on the bridge, Sam and Natasha managed to escape, while Steve was still captured by HYDRA? How would that have changed everyone's plans? (Other than that, not too wildly canon-divergent, hopefully.)Title from the Tool song “H.”And as the walls come down andAs I look in your eyesMy fear begins to fadeRecalling all of the timesI have diedand will die.It's all right.I don't mind.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, first things first. I began writing this fic on the 22nd of March, 2017. This was my longest running WIP, and was my first real attempt at writing something that other people would actually read (and not just get thrown into the void of Tumblr, as I had single-digits followers at that point in time, and I don’t think any of my followers then were in fandom). So, if it seems like maybe not quite my current writing style, that’s why. But I finally like it enough again to have finished editing it and posted it.
> 
> Very briefly beta-read by susieandhobbes.tumblr.com. I had a panic/depressive episode and then never really did anything forever. I made some of the suggested edits that I could remember being suggested—it was a while back—and made some other changes of my own, too. All mistakes are mine. 
> 
> It’s a lot of chapters, but many are pretty short. I decided to start a new chapter designation every time a scene changed point-of-view rather than posting in one big block, and, well, POV changes frequently.
> 
> (Edit: apparently I can't make a functional link.)

“What do you mean you _lost_ Steve?” Nick Fury asked, trying to sit up from his bed.

“Please, sir, don’t do that,” his doctor implored. Having to make do with an improvised hospital room in a cave (a remarkably well-stocked cave, but still a _cave_ ) was bad enough, but to have as strong-willed a patient as Nick Fury? It was almost enough to make a man take a good, hard look at retirement.

Fury glared at him.

“Don’t want to pull out your IV. You can yell at them fine from where you are,” the doctor suggested timidly.

“I know I can, but this is kind of a unique situation. Please, do go on about how you _let_ HYDRA take Captain America.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Natasha continued explaining, “Steve just kind of… stopped. He said ‘Bucky?’, dropped his shield (which we did manage to keep out of HYDRA’s hands, you’re welcome), and stopped fighting. I did what I could, but I was _slightly_ hampered by this hole in my shoulder. Sam got me out of there, but we couldn’t go back for Steve. I would have thought he’d’ve fought back. I know he’s fully capable of taking on that many assailants, but he didn’t even try. Something got him rattled out there.”

“You’re all S.H.I.E.L.D. spies here, you know what ‘Bucky’ means, right? You’re just testing me?” Sam volunteered, glancing around the room.

“Remind me again who you are?” Fury asked, staring through Sam.

“Sam Wilson, formerly of the 58th Pararescue.”

“And how do you know Steve?”

“We met while running a couple days ago.”

“And in those couple days he came to you when HYDRA was trying to kill him, helped you steal secret military technology, and convinced you to help him kidnap a S.H.I.E.L.D. officer?”

Sam, startled, stared at Fury, unsure how he was expected to answer. Fury stared back. Sam blinked.

“Anyway. We didn’t _steal_ the wings, we were returning them to their rightful owner,” Sam replied.

Fury turned to Natasha.

Natasha nodded. “Those wings _have_ come in pretty handy already.”

“Hill?” Fury asked.

“We need all the allies we can get right now,” Maria Hill answered.

“Ok then, that’s settled,” Fury said, grimacing and laying back down against the raised head of his hospital bed. “Next order of business. You _lost _Captain America. How are you going to get him back? Do you even know where he is?”__

__Sam raised his hand. “Not to interrupt or anything, but I don’t think we actually answered my question.”_ _

__“We know who Bucky was,” Fury answered. “I just don’t see how a dead man comes into play.”_ _

__“I don’t know either, but Steve looked like he’d seen a ghost. He’s Captain America. He doesn’t just drop his shield for nothing; we might want to look into this,” Sam insisted._ _

__“The Insight helicarriers launch at 0800 hours tomorrow,” Hill said. We’re working on a tight schedule, and this is not exactly helping. We need to stop them, but we also need to find Rogers. As of right now, evidence (or lack thereof) suggests that he’s still alive. We don’t know how long that’s going to be true, but none of us are going to last very long once those helicarriers go up. I’d say we have about six hours until we have to switch our focus to taking down the helicarriers. If we can’t find him in that timeframe, we’re going to have to call Sharon in to come help us, and we’ll focus on finding Rogers after we get that taken care of. Do what you can.”_ _

__“We’re hiding in a cave. What kind of resources do he have down here to do this?” Sam asked. “And had Steve been with us, what would the plan of attack be?”_ _

__“Tell them,” Fury said, nodding to Hill, who left the room and returned with a reinforced briefcase._ _

__“We _do_ have an encrypted internet connection. We also have these,” Hill said, opening the briefcase to reveal three server blades. “They’re still our main plan of attack, but it might be a bit more difficult without Rogers. We need to get into the helicarriers, replace their targeting blades with our own, and wait for them to launch. We’ll need to get these into all three ships for it to work, but once we get them in place, HYDRA will never know what hit them. It’ll make it look like they’ve locked onto their chosen target or targets, but the helicarriers will open fire on themselves. They go down and we regain enough of a foothold that we can regroup and root HYDRA out of S.H.I.E.L.D.”_ _

__“Killing everyone on board? Won’t your own people be on those ships?” Sam asked, alarmed._ _

__“HYDRA will be staffing the helicarriers with their own. Only people they can fully trust will be allowed on board; they won’t be taking any chances with loyalty on something as big as Project Insight,” Fury explained. “And besides, if we don’t, then we all die. HYDRA won’t hesitate, we should be able to say the same about taking them down.”_ _

__“What if they’re keeping Steve on one of the helicarriers?”_ _

__“That’s what our six-hour window is for– examining every bit of evidence we can find to see if we can figure out where Rogers is,” Hill said. “And I should go see how our backdoor into S.H.I.E.L.D. is coming. If we can get in, we can use the Triskelion’s security systems to see if he’s anywhere in the complex.”_ _

__“And while we’re at it, we should see if we can find out how Sergeant Barnes connects to all this,” Natasha added. “He ties in somehow. Bucky isn’t a very common name anymore; it’s unlikely that Steve was referring to anyone else, dead or not.”_ _


	2. Chapter 2

Steve came to in the dark. The air smelled dusty. He could feel the cuffs on his forearms and ankles and the floor under his side was hard and cold, so he was pretty sure he wasn’t dead. Other than that, he wasn’t sure where he was or why HYDRA had let him live. He ought to be thankful they hadn’t killed him yet, but right now he had to figure out where he was and how to stay alive. He rolled onto his back and sat up, scooting cautiously until he came to rest against a wall. It felt a little like bricks, but cold metal.

Bucky was alive. Somehow, beyond all odds, his best friend was alive. Steve slumped into himself, pressing the cuffs into his stomach. Bucky was alive. He hadn’t even thought to go back and look. No one could have survived that fall. Except that he had. Steve could have saved him then, but he hadn’t. And HYDRA had found him and brainwashed him into their puppet assassin. And if there was anything, _anything_ of Bucky left in the Winter Soldier, Steve owed it to him to try to save him this time.

A muffled scream of pain caught Steve’s attention. He sat up, turning his head to try to figure out where the sound was coming from. Who else was here? He had thought that Natasha and Sam had gotten away since they hadn’t been loaded into the van with him, but had they? HYDRA probably would have wanted to keep them separated, keep them from planning anything together. It sounded like a man’s voice, so not Natasha. Please don’t let that be Sam, Steve thought as he strained against his cuffs.

The screaming had stopped by the time Steve had gotten both the arm and leg cuffs off. He stood up slowly, feeling the blood rush back into his feet. He put his hand on the wall; it felt a little like the mailboxes in his apartment building, or like a card catalog, but flat-fronted and metal. He continued along the wall to the corner. The space was small, and each of the three walls so far (no door yet, but he knew there had to be one. Unless they dropped him in through the ceiling?) had the same feel, lots of little drawer-doors. The fourth wall, that was different. This had to be the door, but the seam he found was rounded. A circular door? 

It clicked. He was in a vault, a bank vault. It would be locked, obviously, but it would be less secure from the inside. If Steve could find the mechanism, he could probably break out. But before he could put his plan into action, the fluorescent lights in the ceiling came on, temporarily blinding him. The vault door swung open. He charged towards the door but was pushed back heavily, stumbling and losing any advantage, however slight, he might have had.

Standing in the door of the vault was Bucky, blank-eyed, lank-haired, shirtless and scarred, arms hanging at his sides. Rumlow stood behind Bucky, holding a gun to his head. Threatening him, but also threatening Steve. Saying, if you move against us, we will kill him and make you watch. Pierce was there too, just out of reach to Bucky’s right. They were flanked by HYDRA security who all had their guns trained on Steve. Pierce looked at Steve but spoke to Bucky.

“Soldier, do you know this man?” Pierce asked.

Bucky was silent for a moment, eyes trying to focus. He looked at Steve like he was a museum exhibit or an unusual animal. “No,” he finally answered.

“And if he becomes dangerous and we need you to kill him, will you have a problem with that?”

“No.”

“Good.” Pierce maintained his aggressive eye contact with Steve. 

Steve glared back, refusing to back down.

Rumlow walked Bucky back (it hurt to watch him following so tamely), followed by Pierce. Pierce turned back again, adding, casually, almost as an aside, “Oh yes. If you manage to get through that door, your guards have been ordered to open fire immediately and continue shooting until you or they are dead. We’d prefer to keep you alive, but we don’t always get what we want. I’d stay put if I were you. You might be strong, but you’re not bulletproof.”

The vault door closed and the lights were turned off again, leaving Steve in the dark. 

Steve sat down again to collect himself. His breath caught as he let down his shell of composure. It looked like Sam and Natasha had gotten away, because otherwise HYDRA would have used them to threaten him, too. At least they were safe. But what had HYDRA done to Bucky? He looked hardly older than the day he fell. His hair was longer, but his face had barely changed. Steve would know that face anywhere. The eyes were far harder than they had any right to be, but the face was Bucky’s. And obviously the metal arm was different. HYDRA was using Bucky as a weapon. Both for their own gain and now to keep Steve in line. If they deemed him a threat, they would send Bucky in to kill him, knowing that he wouldn’t, couldn’t, fight to kill against him. Of course, the question now was why was he still alive? What did HYDRA have in mind for him? Do to him whatever they had done to Bucky? Steve needed a plan.


	3. Chapter 3

“Yeah. Yeah, from the brief glimpse I got, that definitely looks like him. Just with longer hair and more stubble,” Natasha said, studying the picture on the Wikipedia page for James Barnes. “Sergeant Barnes as the Winter Soldier? What do you think, Sam?”

“I didn’t really get a look at the guy without the muzzle and goggles, but it makes as much sense as anything else that’s happened this week,” Sam replied with a resigned shrug.

“So how does a man who died in 1944 end up in Washington seventy years later? How does Captain America’s best friend become HYDRA’s attack-dog?” Hill asked from her own computer.

“There are two main schools of thought for how the Winter Soldier acquired his code name,” Natasha began. “The first and more popular idea was that he was so-called because he was a Soviet agent (or series of agents) and the Russian winters are notoriously deadly to Western invaders. The second idea was, because the Winter Soldier _looked_ like the same man every time and barely seemed to age, that he was kept in cryostasis between missions. But that was usually dismissed as being too far-fetched to work. Cryostasis technology is barely feasible now; it definitely wasn’t good enough to preserve a living human back in the 1940′s. No one would be able to survive being frozen, the cellular damage from the microscopic ice crystals would be too much. The only reason Steve survived _his_ iceberg adventure was because of the serum.”

“What if he was enhanced, too?” Sam asked. “That would explain a few things. Like how he’s got a metal arm, or how he got thrown off a car going highway speed, rolled down the road, and then got up like nothing happened. Oh, and after all that, he ripped out my car’s steering column,” He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Only problem, if the Soviets got some kind of serum of their own and gave that to him, how would he have survived falling off that train to get found by them in the first place?”

“I think I might have found something,” Hill announced, her voice deadly serious.

Natasha and Sam crowded around Hill’s computer, looking at the PDF on the screen. The picture at the top of the document was small, but unmistakably the same one used in Barnes’s Wikipedia article.

“Where did you find this?” Natasha asked.

“Is that a bill of sale?” Sam said, aghast.

“It certainly looks like it,” Hill agreed. “I found this in a partition that HYDRA didn’t hide nearly as well as they probably thought they had. This was in a folder titled “Expenses 2013” but the filename caught my attention: tunguska.pdf. Tunguska’s Russian, the site of a massive explosion in 1908, believed to be a meteor strike. Remember last February when the S.T.R.I.K.E. team got sent to Russia to assist in the cleanup and hushing-up of the general weirdness in the aftermath of the Chelyabinsk meteor? Apparently that was a cover for the acquisition of the Winter Soldier from the now-defunct Siberian branch of Russian HYDRA.”

“Acquired as part of Project Insight?” Natasha mused.

“Looks like it. Protection in case anyone found out what they were actually doing,” Hill explained. “Hence what happened to Fury.”

“Question now is, are they going to use him to protect the helicarriers or to guard Steve or whatever they’re doing to him?” Sam asked. “If they bought him to protect their project, it makes more sense that they’d be keeping him with the helicarriers now. When we grabbed Sitwell, they had to have figured out we’d be coming for Insight. But then again, if he is enhanced, then he’s probably the only one who could come close to equaling Steve in a fight, so maybe they’re using him against Steve. Which one do you think it is?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure anymore,” Hill admitted. “We should prepare as if he’ll be waiting for us at the Triskelion. If we plan for the worst case scenario, we’ll be ready for anything. Natasha, you’ve encountered him before. Is there anything else you can tell us?”

“Not much, it was a very brief encounter five years ago,” Natasha said.

“Every bit helps,” Hill replied.


	4. Chapter 4

“Hey, if anybody out there is listening, what does a guy have to do to get a bathroom break?” Steve asked loudly, knocking on the vault door.

“Very funny,” one of the guards answered. “If we open that door, you start punching, we start shooting, and we all end up dead, one way or another. I don’t feel like dying today; just piss on the wall or something.”

“I don’t think the people whose safe deposit boxes these are would appreciate that very much,” Steve replied.

“Then hold it, I don’t care,” the guard said with an annoyed sighed. “Piss on the floor. Do whatever the fuck you want, we’re not opening that door.”

“So, what do you have planned for me that no one’s shot me yet?” Steve asked, trying to keep his tone casual.

“How should I know?” The guard snapped. “Nobody tells us anything, and even if they did, we wouldn’t tell you. That’s the kind of stupid thing that only happens in movies.”

“Eh, worth a try,” Steve said.

“Is he always this annoying?” One of the other guards asked.


	5. Chapter 5

“Tell me you’ve found _something_ on where Rogers is,” Fury said, being rolled into the computer room by his beleaguered doctor. “We need to take care of those helicarriers, and having him back and helping would make me breathe a little easier.”

“He’s nowhere visible in the Triskelion,” Hill reported. “We’ve been looking at traffic cams for the past two hours. There were eight S.H.I.E.L.D. vans dispatched, all identical, all plates and identifying marks obscured. We don’t know which one he was loaded into, but they all went different directions, taking the most convoluted routes. We’ve found destinations for five of them. The remaining three all went off the grid and haven’t reappeared in any of the footage we’ve scanned yet.”

“Where did the five you have tracked go?”

“Three of those came back to the Triskelion, and I didn’t see Steve or anyone or anything unidentified unloaded from any of them, so they’re probably not keeping him in one of the super-secret black-ops cells… that don’t exist and that I certainly don’t know anything about. The fourth van went to Arlington National Cemetery, and the fifth ended up at Walter Reed. Personally, I think Walter Reed is the most likely place to take him. Access to enough drugs to keep him sedated until they figure out whatever they’re going to do with him.”

“No offense, but that’s way too obvious,” Natasha interjected. “Even looking at it as reverse psychology, it’s a bad move on their part.”

“Then where’s your vote?” Hill asked. “We’ve only got two and a half hours left before we have to turn our attention to the helicarriers. If you know something, speak up now.”

“Not Walter Reed. Too busy; they’d never be able to get enough of their people inside to keep things quiet. Arlington is also a no-go. It’s not as populated as Walter Reed, but there’s also nowhere to hide.”

“What about if one of those big mausoleums is actually the entrance to a secret underground base?” Sam added. “You already found one of those, why not another?”

“Possible, but unlikely. Camp Lehigh had been abandoned and chained off for some time, nobody coming and going to spot unusual activity. Arlington is active. They’d never be able to go in or out during the daytime. Someone would see something,” Natasha explained.

“Ok, then one of the three vans we lost,” Hill said. “Any insight into where they might be going?”

“Somewhere a white van wouldn’t look out of place. Maybe a construction site, a warehouse, somewhere it could pass as a delivery van, somewhere with a garage,” Natasha listed.

“Yeah, ok, so pretty much _anywhere_. Good to know,” Sam said, frustration creeping into his voice. “Where did we lose each of those vans? Maybe we could narrow it down more if we knew generally what part of the city each of them was last seen in.”


	6. Chapter 6

Steve kept tapping the broken cuffs against the vault door. Not hard enough to _sound_ like he was trying to break out, but just loud enough to be really annoying. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been at it, but if his arm was starting to get sore, it must have been a significant chunk of time.

“Ugh, god! Shut _UP_ already in there!” One of the guards shouted.

“Fucking hell, I’m about to go in there and shoot him myself just to make him stop, I don’t care what Pierce has planned for him,” one of the others said to his compatriots.

It was a terrible plan, but it was doing _something_.


	7. Chapter 7

“Still no sign of Steve,” Natasha announced as Fury limped into the room, scowling with pain and frustration.

“Those helicarriers launch in ten and a half hours and _no one_ here has anything on his whereabouts?” Fury sighed angrily.

“Nothing unusual spotted on the traffic cams during the evening rush hour. Pierce and the S.T.R.I.K.E. team members we were able to track all followed their usual routes home after work, as far as we can tell. No detours, no unplanned stops. So either one of them is keeping Rogers at their own home, or else they’ve got him somewhere secure enough that they don’t feel the need to check up on him,” Hill replied. “We’re still working on the theory that if they wanted to kill him, we would have heard about it by now, if for no other reason than to discourage us from meddling with Project Insight.”

“My money’s on him being at Pierce’s house,” Sam said. “He’s the kind of guy who looks clean and above-board, and then when he gets caught, all his neighbors say things like ‘he was such a nice man, we never dreamed that he had a murder-hole in his basement’.”

Fury glared at Sam.

“What,” Sam said. “Most monsters don’t look like monsters. There’s the fishy-looking guys who your gut tells you not to trust, and then there’s the utterly-above-suspicion monsters who hide in plain sight.”

“Fury and Pierce were friends for over thirty years. He’s understandably upset at finding out he was HYDRA,” Hill explained.

“I get it, I do. Like I said, they’re really good at blending in,” Sam said. “There was one guy in my unit, always willing to help a guy out, always trying to keep morale up. Great in the field. Commendation after commendation. Turns out he’d been running a kiddie porn ring for five fucking years. No one suspected anything, he was just ‘such a good guy, I’d never have thought he’d be capable of something like that’.”

“I’ve been to Pierce’s house, there’s nowhere there to keep Rogers,” Fury said. “And yes, I’m sure. I’m a spy, I know a thing or two about secret hidey-holes. Pierce doesn’t even have a panic room.”

“I’m calling Sharon,” Hill said, getting up from her computer. “We can’t afford to lose any more time. We have to try to get into the helicarriers as soon as possible tonight; waiting until morning, even very early morning, would be cutting it entirely too close.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Fucking god _DAMN_ , finally,” one of the guards said when the tapping from inside the vault stopped.

“Do you suppose he stopped because he decided to get some sleep, or because he’s planning something?” the second guard wondered.

“I dunno, I’m just glad he stopped,” the first guard replied.

“I’m calling this in,” a third guard announced. “You two watch yourselves.”

Steve kept his ear pressed to the vault door. One set of footsteps receded away. Two guards remaining. If he could draw one or both of them closer to the vault door, he was pretty sure he could get the door open fast enough (he had had plenty of time to find the locking mechanism, even in the dark, on the inside of the door (poor planning, HYDRA, poor planning) and, under cover of the obnoxious tapping, slowly dismantle it) to get one with the door, and, while the other was startled, disarm him and knock him out. He’d deal with number three once he was out of the vault.


	9. Chapter 9

“Can I ask where you managed to get a stealth mini-sub with a laser cutter and its own portable airlock in Washington, DC?” Sam asked into his communicator. He, Hill, and Sharon Carter were currently moving slowly up the Potomac for the underwater infiltration of the Triskelion. (Fury and Natasha were back at base waiting for their part in the big HYDRA take-down and tell-all.)

“That information is classified,” came Natasha’s answer over the earpiece, a very slight laugh in her voice.

“Yeah, yeah. I know, spy stuff. I’m curious. So sue me.”

“Just be glad S.H.I.E.L.D. never even thought about guarding against an attack from _under_ the Potomac,” Hill said.

“I’ll be glad when I’m out of this thing,” Sam replied. “Are you sure it’s meant to fit three people? Because there is no room; my leg is starting to fall asleep back here. And how the hell did you plan on fitting Steve in here? That man is not designed for confined spaces.”

“Three people, yes. Three people and a jetpack with wings, no. Three people, one of whom is Captain America, would be cramped but doable. You could have left the wings back in the cave.”

“Nope, not happening. They’ve been out of my possession for too long and we might need them, therefore I’m bringing them.”

“We are approaching the ingress site,” Sharon announced. “Be ready.”


	10. Chapter 10

Steve flung the vault door open, knocking the first guard violently back. He hit the wall and crumpled, unconscious at the very least. The second guard managed two shots in Steve’s direction. One went wide, one grazed his ribs. Steve hissed in pain and, grabbing the gun out of his hands, knocked the second guard against the wall. Neither guard carried handcuffs or even plastic zip ties (again, poor planning), so Steve pulled out their bootlaces and secured their hands and feet. It cost him a little time, but this way if they came to while he was still in the building, they wouldn’t immediately be able to come after him. He took their weapons and crept cautiously up the hallway.

“How do I wake him up?” came the frantic voice of the third guard, somewhere ahead of Steve.

No reply. Phone call? Steve wasn’t entirely sure how much time had passed in the vault, but it would have to be late. HYDRA had to keep up appearances, most of their people keeping normal schedules with S.H.I.E.L.D. and not spending all night in a bank.

Steve turned the corner to see the (frankly terrified-looking) third guard holding a cell phone up to the Winter Soldier’s—Bucky’s—ear. Bucky stood motionless in a small alcove in the hallway, dressed as he was in the fight earlier that day, looking for all intents and purposes like he was sleeping on his feet. Maybe he was?

“Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot,” the guard said, trying to sound confident.

Without warning, Bucky’s hand flew up and plucked the gun out of the guard’s hand. He stepped out of the alcove, blocking the narrow hall. The guard dropped the phone in surprise.

Bucky, the Winter Soldier, said nothing but raised the gun and pointed it at Steve, center-mass.  
Steve froze. He knew at this distance, he’d never be able to dodge fast enough. Even if he had anywhere to dodge to. Maybe he could duck fast enough to avoid a lethal injury, but he’d prefer not to get shot at all.

“Put the guns on the floor and kick them over here,” Bucky ordered. “They will be here shortly.”

“Bucky, it’s me,” Steve said.

“Guns on the floor. _Now_ ,” the Winter Soldier said more forcefully.

“No. You know me. Listen to me. I’m Steve,” Steve pleaded.

Bucky fired, the bullet passing through the fleshy part of Steve’s upper left arm. Steve gasped in pain and surprise. (But really, why did he think that would work?)

“Final warning. Guns on the floor, over here.”

Steve complied, placing both of the guards’ weapons on the floor and kicking them over. The remaining guard retrieved the guns and stood nervously next to the Winter Soldier, not even holding the weapons ready.

Steve was not nearly as prepared for this as he had thought he was. Bucky didn’t recognize him. Bucky shot him. Bucky was the Winter Soldier, but the Winter Soldier was not Bucky. Steve’s head swam. How could this possibly end well? The only chance he could see was somehow, beyond all hope, finding Bucky in there and bringing him back out. But to do that, he would have to get close and stay close to him. Steve raised his hands slowly.

The guard looked _very_ suspicious, eyes darting between Steve and the Winter Soldier, still holding Steve at gunpoint. Bucky didn’t relax his arm. Steve kept his hands up.

“So, how do you want to do this? Wait here until reinforcements arrive? Put me back in the vault? (I think I broke the lock on it, sorry.) Sit down and have a cup of coffee?” Steve said, nerves bringing out the kind of bad jokes that used to buy him a second or two of breathing room when he was smaller and really needed it. 

“Put him in the alcove, facing the wall,” the guard ordered, readying his own weapon. “On his knees, hands behind his head. Keep your gun on him.”

Bucky obeyed. Steve obeyed. They waited.


	11. Chapter 11

Maria, Sam, and Sharon had managed to infiltrate the Insight hangar with surprisingly little difficulty.  
“I don’t need to tell you, but I will. Be on _high_ alert. Just because we haven’t found any evidence of the Winter Soldier yet doesn’t mean he’s not here. He didn’t become the world’s deadliest assassin by being easy to find. This has been _entirely_ too painless so far,” Hill told them over their comms. “And S.H.I.E.L.D. may not have been planning on an underwater invasion, but HYDRA is much more paranoid. Especially given how much they have riding on Project Insight; they sacrificed Zola for this. Everyone, find your assigned helicarrier. We need to get in and get out as quickly as humanly possible.”

“Understood,” Sharon replied quietly. “Helicarrier IN-01. I am in route.”

“Helicarrier IN-02, locked on target,” Sam answered.

“And I have IN-03,” Hill said. “Remember. There will be fewer guards at this time of night, but they will still be present. We do not know which guards are HYDRA and which are loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. Do not engage unless you have no other options.”

\-----

Sam inched his way around a cranelift, watching a pair of guards pass by on their rotation. They both looked relaxed, like this job was nothing more than shift-differential pay. Overnight at S.H.I.E.L.D. guarding helicarriers. Who would be stupid enough to try to break in, after all? It’s not like you could steal one of these puppies and take it for a joy-ride. Well, at least their indifference made his job a little easier. He found the service ladder leading up to the flight deck-level of IN-02 and began to climb as quietly as possible, hoping no one would think to look up.

\-----

Sharon had taken a more circuitous route, but a less risky one. She had her eye on a maintenance port on IN-01. Once she got that open, she could use the ducts connecting the port to the main body of the ship to gain entry.

\-----

Agent Hill was the most familiar with the site and the helicarriers. She was the first to report back with an “Alpha lock. I will return to the ingress site and guard the sub.” 


	12. Chapter 12

“Just can’t seem to stay out of the way, can you?” Rumlow said to Steve, kicking at his shin. The other reinforcements re-cuffed Steve’s wrists and ankles, arms behind his back this time.

“No, I guess not,” Steve said, looking pointedly at the Winter Soldier. “I never have been able to pass up a good fight, I suppose. Eh, Buck?”

Bucky said nothing, not even registering that he had heard Steve’s words.

“What are we going to do with you, Rogers?” Rumlow continued. “You just gotta make everything _difficult_.”

“What can I say? I’m good at being difficult,” Steve sassed.

“That’s not a compliment,” Rumlow said, kicking Steve again. He turned to Bucky. “Soldier, I want you to carry the prisoner to the garage. Secure him in one of the vans—do not let him escape, knock him out if you have to— and wait for further instruction.

Bucky nodded and roughly hauled Steve into a fireman’s carry. Steve briefly considered struggling, but all that would accomplish would be to hurt Bucky. 

“I don’t like it,” the guard whispered to Rumlow. “He surrendered far too willingly. He’s planning something. I know he is.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he is, but there’s no way he can get out of what Pierce has planned for him. All we have to do is keep him restrained for about eight more hours.”


	13. Chapter 13

“Bravo lock,” Sam announced as he clicked his server blade into place and punched in the code to move the server tower back into home position. “I’m on my way out, how are you doing, Sharon?”

“Had a little bit of trouble getting the maintenance port open, but I’m in now.”

“Sharon, get out of there, _now_ ,” Hill’s voice sounded over the comms. “You must have tripped an alarm, because we have incoming headed straight towards IN-01. Do not let them find that chip or find you _anywhere_ near the server hub. And Sam? Don’t use the wings yet, but get ready to fly. Keep an eye on IN-01 in case Sharon needs a quick exit.”

“Copy that,” Sam said quietly, crossing the helicarrier’s flight deck and trying to stay out of sight of the dozen or so guards crossing the catwalks towards IN-01. 

“I’ve got this,” Sharon said. “It’s not gonna be pretty, and you’ll probably have to leave without me, but I have a plan.”

“That is a negative, Agent. We are not leaving without you. Get out of that ship, entry is imminent,” Hill pressed.

“Do I need to provide a distraction?” Sam interjected, unfurling the wings under cover of a Quinjet.

“Thank you, but no. Charlie lock. Server blade is in place, and I am commencing Plan B. I will let them find me, make them think I’m continuing Fury’s information-gathering.”

“If they catch you in their system, they _will_ search everything, and they will find our chips. _Get out_.”

“They won’t if it looks like I never got as far as the computers. I’m going back into the ducts where I’ll let them find me. They’ll think they stopped me before I could make it into their systems,” Sharon said. There was a series of muffled clunks as she was (presumably) squeezing back into one of the ducts.

“Sharon, they are _on_ the ship.”

“I know—oh, um, hi,” Sharon said, her voice changing tone mid-sentence. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

“And what is it supposed to look like? You’re stuck in an air duct. There was an alarm tripped, we thought we had a break-in, and after the launch ship hijacking, we’re taking every precaution. You’re very lucky we didn’t shoot you first and ask questions later, Agent 13,” came the voice over Sharon’s comm. “ _Do_ tell us why you’re in here in the middle of the night.”

“Director Fury thought there was something fishy with Insight. Rumor has it he was killed because of his involvement, which, if true, certainly suggests that there’s something amiss. And the main doors were locked and alarmed and I don’t have helicarrier clearance, so I had to find an alternate way in. Don’t you want to be _sure_ there’s nothing wrong here?” Sharon replied blithely.

“The maintenance hatch is alarmed, too. And what, you decided to take the same risk as Fury, _and_ after hours? Not a smart idea, Agent, even if it were more than just an unsubstantiated rumor. You’re better than this. Was Secretary Pierce’s word not good enough for you? We looked into Insight and found nothing out of line,” came the voice over Sharon’s comm.

“I’m sure he believes that there’s nothing wrong. He has to, this is his and Fury’s pet project. I’m just continuing Fury’s work.”

“Look, we just went over this. Insight was searched and cleared. There is nothing wrong with it. And in case you didn’t hear, Fury was trying to sell S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets. That’s _not_ just a rumor, we found the money trail and everything. I’d take his paranoid ramblings with a grain of salt, if I were you, Agent. How about you get out of that duct—it _can’t_ be comfortable—and come with us? We can show you the findings, help put your mind at ease.”

“I _would_ like to see the findings,” Sharon said, drawing out her words.

“Then please, Agent, come with us.”

A couple minutes later, the line crackled and went dead.

\-----

“Damn it, Sharon,” Hill muttered. “A Carter, through and through. Superb agent, but stubborn as all hell. Sam, meet me back at the sub. We need to regroup and come up with a new plan.” 


	14. Chapter 14

The van made a sharp turn at speed, throwing Steve forward against his restraints. One guard was toppled onto the floor. The Winter Soldier braced himself against the ceiling with one hand. Rumlow yelped “What the hell, man!” and scrambled to regain his balance and his dropped weapon.

“Sorry sir,” the driver’s voice filtered back. “The Triskelion just radioed in; Agent 13 was found in an _air duct_ on helicarrier IN-01. We’re headed there now, they want the whole S.T.R.I.K.E. unit.”

“An air duct? What the hell was she looking for? Did she see anything she shouldn’t have?” Rumlow asked.

“Don’t know, they just said they found her trying to get in, and it looks like they stopped her before she even made it out of the ducts.”

“That’s still too far. Where is she now?”

“Security has her in Briefing Room Three. They report that she went without a fight, which means she’s probably planning something. Do you think the break-in was a decoy to something bigger? Planting explosives in the guts of the ship?”

“I don’t know, but I guess we’ll find out when we get there. In the meantime, tell them they might want to do a remote scan for explosives. I wouldn’t put it past her to try her hand at a little sabotage.” 

“Roger that,” the driver said and radioed the message back to the Triskelion.

“Sir, if I may, what are we going to do with the prisoner if we have to go to the Triskelion?” the guard asked.

“We’ll find somewhere to stash him. Don’t worry. This is only a minor hitch, not even a delay. Everything is still on schedule,” Rumlow replied angrily.

\-----

When they reached the Triskelion, Steve was hustled off at gunpoint to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s black-ops cells and locked in with the Winter Soldier, who took up a sentry position in front of the door. The room was almost completely bare, just a sink and a toilet firmly bolted down in the corner. There wasn’t even a bed in any form. Steve wasn’t sure if this meant the cell wasn’t designed for long-term containment or if the prisoners it was meant to hold weren’t to be trusted with even a mattress.

“This is quite a predicament I’m in, isn’t it Bucky?” Steve asked. Realistically, he didn’t expect the Winter Soldier to answer, but maybe, just _maybe_ , if he kept at it, he’d find little glimmers of Bucky in there under the surface.

Unsurprisingly, the Winter Soldier merely glared at him.


	15. Chapter 15

Hill radioed back in to base with the news. Fury was less than pleased.

“This is why I’m bald, do you understand?” Fury sighed. “Stress, people. Stress from headstrong agents doing whatever the hell they feel is right with no regard to the big picture or _actual plans_. First Rogers and now Carter. Do you know where they’ve taken her?”

“I’ll find her,” Natasha chimed in, “hang on a moment. And Nick, please sit down before you rip out your stitches. You can be angry at her when we get her back, ok?”

The line went silent again. Sam sat bouncing his leg restlessly. Hill stared at her hands clenching and unclenching. They waited.

\-----

An eternity, or possibly seven minutes, later, the comms came back to life.

“I’ve got something, but you’re not going to like it,” Natasha said cynically. “Fury’s over here having about five aneurisms over this latest turn of events. I found Sharon, but you have to promise me you’re not going to do anything or go anywhere until we give the ok.”

“And how long do you think that might be?” Sam asked.

“Probably not until tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning meaning ‘technically the clock says A.M. now’ or ‘normal people getting into work’ morning?”

“A little earlier than most people, but yeah, the second one,” Natasha replied.

“We’re just going to leave her in there with them? Where is she and why can’t we go after her?”

“Sharon’s tough, she can take care of herself. And she’ll need to, because the Triskelion security system says she’s in Briefing Room Three along with five S.T.R.I.K.E. team members. If, as we strongly suspect, all of S.T.R.I.K.E. is HYDRA, then any attempt at rescue will tip them off that someone knows that HYDRA has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and they’ll start destroying the evidence,” Natasha explained. “Fury and I are putting our part of the plan into action tomorrow with the arrival of the World Security Council members. Pierce is hosting them for the big launch and we need Pierce. Unless they let her go or leave her alone (highly doubtful), you won’t be able to mount a rescue operation until after we do our part.”

“And what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Do I sit here playing Flappy Bird until my phone battery dies?” Sam asked sarcastically.

“You’d better not have snuck your phone along,” Natasha replied. (“Of course I didn’t bring my phone on the super-secret spy mission,” Sam said. “It was a joke.”) “Well, if I were in your place, I’d get some rest while you can. We’ll call you in the morning or if the situation changes.”

“She’s right, Sam,” Hill said. “Sharon knew what she was getting into. I may not like or agree with her choice to get herself caught, but she _did_ get the chip in and there hasn’t been any further heightened activity in the hangar. A couple hours of rest is not a bad idea. We’re in a relative blind-spot here, and we can take turns keeping watch. I’ll go first.”

Sam begrudgingly lay down for a bit of shut-eye.


	16. Chapter 16

Rollins stepped out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him. “We’ve been at this for three hours. We’ve shown her the investigation reports and she’s argued every single line. And other than argument, she hasn’t given us a damn thing. Even the scans came back clean, no explosives. And if not sabotage, then why was she in there? I say we bring in the Asset, let him soften her up.”

“And this is why _you_ don’t have clearance and _I_ do,” Rumlow replied. “We are not calling in the Asset for one agent who’s probably bluffing or just paranoid. She _was_ one of Fury’s favorites, and you know, birds of a feather. And besides, we can’t risk compromising ourselves at this juncture.”

“Pierce used him on Fury.”

“Yeah, because Fury was getting his fingers a little too dirty for our liking, and Fury had the same level of clearance that Pierce has. We had to take him out because he was becoming a real danger. _And_ that happened in Rogers’ apartment, not here in the Triskelion. There’s enough security feeds here that we’d never be able to overwrite them all, too much evidence. We can’t just kill everyone we want, whenever we want. Yet. Keep stringing her along; if she’s hiding anything, she’ll slip up eventually. And if she doesn’t, well, we just have to wait until those ships are up and we’re home free.”


	17. Chapter 17

Steve leaned over the sink, rinsing blood out of his nostrils. His nose would fix itself quickly enough, but it still stung. All that his little one-sided ‘chat’ with the Winter Soldier had accomplished was getting him punched in the face. Little stories, anecdotes. Memories they’d shared. Things they’d done together. From schoolyard stories to missions with the Howlies. The Winter Soldier had ignored him quite well at first, but Steve persisted. Which earned him first an annoyed growl, then a few choice words, and finally a solid left jab that left him stunned for longer than he would have liked. But, hey, if it had helped at _all_ , it was worth it.

The Winter Soldier had moved back to his position in front of the cell door. Steve took a drink from the faucet, sat down in the corner, and started talking again. He could’ve sworn that Bucky actually rolled his eyes.


	18. Chapter 18

“Rise and shine, it’s another big day of taking down a secret, fascist organization,” Natasha sing-songed over the comms. (Sharon’s comm unit had been written off as destroyed when scans failed to pick it up anywhere in the building, but deactivated remotely anyway, just to be safe.)

“I’m awake,” Sam yawned. “What’s the plan?”

“Hill, you remember mentioning those black-ops cells that you know nothing about?” Fury said. “Well, there’s been a suspicious amount of S.T.R.I.K.E. activity in the restricted section of the sub-basement where those cells certainly are not located. It couldn’t hurt to see what they’re up to.”

“Last time I checked, I don’t have access to that particular section of the sub-basement, and Sam doesn’t have any security clearance,” Hill said.

“Neither does S.T.R.I.K.E., but there they are,” Fury responded. “Find a way in.”

“Is Sharon still in Briefing Room Three?” Sam asked.

“Security says she’s still there. Has been all night.”

“You think it might be Steve down in the basement?”

“Maybe. See what you can find. And whatever you do, don’t get yourself killed or captured. If you do, I might just leave you there and retire to a nice little fishing cabin in the middle of nowhere with a dog and a cooler of beers where I don’t have to worry about always saving you reckless assholes. Natasha’s the only one who’s allowed to visit.”

“Aww, don’t be like that, Nick. You know you love all of us. Even Tony,” Natasha teased.

“Correction: Barton’s dog is now the only one allowed to visit.”

“Well, it’s been nice chatting,” Natasha added, “but I have a Councilwoman to meet. I’ll call you back when it’s done. But don’t bother calling me, I won’t be able to keep my earpiece in for this part.”

“And don’t call me either unless you find Rogers,” Fury followed up. “I’ll have my earpiece in, I just don’t want to hear it.”

“Yes, sir,” Hill said. “And Sam, how good are you at maneuvering those wings in tight spaces?”

“They’re practically a part of me. I can fly _anywhere_.”

“Good. We might need a quick exit.”


	19. Chapter 19

Steve groaned and rolled over. He was a bit stiff from sleeping on the floor. Ok, so maybe his bed back at his apartment was a little too soft, but the floor wasn’t exactly the most comfortable thing either.

Come to think about it, when had he decided to take a nap?

Steve rubbed his eyes and cursed under his breath when he hit a tender spot. Oh. Of course. He’d probably gotten himself punched again. How long had he been out? The Winter Soldier was still standing in front of the door, watching him. Or, more correctly, scowling at him.

“’Morning,” Steve said, cheerfully.

Bucky continued scowling.


	20. Chapter 20

“Where are you going?” Rollins asked when Sharon stood up from her chair and walked purposefully to the door.

“It’s 5:45 am. I start today’s shift in fifteen minutes. I thought I’d pop into the cafeteria, get some coffee and a muffin and then get to my station,” Sharon said, all innocence. “Insight launches in just over two hours. If there _is_ anything wrong with it, then everyone needs to be wide awake and ready to deal with any and all contingencies.”

She opened the door and walked out before any of the stunned S.T.R.I.K.E. personnel could respond.

“You’re just gonna let her walk?” Rollins said, trying to push past Rumlow into the hallway.

“Yeah. I don’t _want_ to, but we gotta let her go for now,” Rumlow said, pushing back. He jabbed a finger into Rollins’ chest. “She’s already suspicious, we have to play this down and let her think _we_ don’t suspect anything past her being Fury’s nosy pet agent. If you ruin this for us, I will _personally_ put you onto the Insight list.”


	21. Chapter 21

Sam scanned the hall, covering Hill as she disconnected and reconnected wires in the fourth electrical panel already. Hill had explained that there was a way of fooling the biometric security in the restricted zones, but that it was a convoluted process that required fiddling with just the right wires in just the right order.

“Still clear,” Sam said quietly. 

“Just two more,” Hill muttered.

“Two more wires or two more panels?”

“Panels.”


	22. Chapter 22

Sharon sat at her computer terminal sipping her third double espresso. The cafeteria espresso wasn’t exactly known for its flavor, but it _was_ caffeinated. She stifled a yawn and ignored the crawling feeling on the back of her neck. It either meant she was entering into the first stage of caffeine poisoning or Rumlow was staring daggers at her again. 

“So, what’d you do to piss off the Brock?” the tech at the terminal next to hers leaned over to ask.

Sharon shrugged and took another sip of espresso so she wouldn’t have to give a more precise answer.

“Oh! I bet I know what happened. Did he ask you out and you shot him down? He asked Hannah in IT out two weeks ago, she said no, and he was _pissed_ off. He punched his computer tower, knocked some things loose in there, but since he was avoiding IT completely because he didn’t want to deal with her, he made me come fix it for him.”

“Yeah, something like that.”


	23. Chapter 23

“When he said ‘suspicious amount of S.T.R.I.K.E. activity,’ he wasn’t kidding,” Hill said, tasing another S.T.R.I.K.E. commando as Sam took out his counterpart with a kick to the head. “How many is this now?”

“I stopped counting after number fourteen,” Sam said.

“We’re getting close. The cells are just down one more floor.”

“Yeah, but how close can we get before one of them manages to raise an alarm? We’ve been exceptionally lucky so far. And do we have a key or a code to unlock the cell they’re keeping Steve in once we find it?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Then how are we getting him out? I don’t think we have time to fool around in the wiring again.”

“No, but we do have the time for explosives,” Hill said, briefly pulling a small shaped charge out of one of her jacket pockets.

“Ok, yeah. That should do it.”


	24. Chapter 24

“And how are you all finding Washington so far?” Pierce asked, opening a bottle of champagne. The councilmembers murmured their approvals. “Good, good. Glad to hear it. How does it feel to finally be here in person? Meeting by hologram is convenient, but it misses out on something. And we can’t have you watching something as important as this launch via a glorified teleconference. Please, sit down, have something to eat. Enjoy yourselves. This is a momentous day.”

A long table had been moved into the World Security Council chambers at the top of the Triskelion and set with champagne flutes and hors d’oeuvres trays. Only the best for the culmination of almost two years’ worth of work. The councilmembers settled in to prepare for the much-lauded launch of Project Insight.


	25. Chapter 25

“This is it, this is the one,” Hill said, stopping in front of one of a row of seemingly identical cells, all solid walls, metal doors, and no windows.

“You’re sure about this? Unless you’ve got more secret pockets in there that I don’t know about, you only have one of those charges, and I don’t want to waste it on an empty cell. We can’t afford to be guessing,” Sam said, scanning the doors, trying to find what Hill was seeing.

“It’s the doorframe. The cell is locked electromagnetically, and there’s a very faint buzz from the frame. If you’re quiet and you know what you’re listening for, it’s distinct.”

Sam paused, listening closely. “Ok, I think I hear what you’re talking about. How about we give Steve a heads-up that we’re about to blow the door?”

Hill shook her head. “These cells are soundproofed except for a microphone and speaker connected to the keypad. If we use that, we alert them to our presence. (“I think a _bomb_ will do that, too.” “I know, but this way gives us a few seconds of _slight_ advantage.”) We can’t hear anyone inside, and anyone inside can’t hear us. We’ll just have to hope he’s not right up next to the door and let the serum do the rest. Well, here goes nothing.”

Hill scrutinized the door, chose a spot, placed the explosive, and set the fuse. She and Sam sprinted down the hall, rounded the corner, and waited for the blast.

\-----

One moment the Winter Soldier had his fingers around Steve’s throat, attempting to choke him into submission, the next moment Steve was thrown violently back, striking the opposite wall of his cell. The Winter Soldier was on the floor next to him, dust and debris in his hair and speckling pale constellations against the black of his body armor. Steve coughed. Bucky reacted almost naturally, hand nearly making it up to his head, fingers just brushing his temple. He dropped his hand, programming taking back over (to admit pain was to admit weakness and the Winter Solider was not allowed to show weakness), but remaining hunched over against the wall, trying to regain his senses after the explosion.

As the ringing in his ears began to subside, Steve heard his name. 

“Sam?” Steve asked hopefully.

“Yeah, Steve, it’s me. And Agent Hill, too. We’ve got to get you out of there before _he_ gets back up. Come on,” Sam said, climbing over the chunks of what used to be the wall and holding out his hand for Steve to take.

“Not without him,” Steve answered.

“Steve, you have to come with us now,” Sam entreated.

“You don’t understand, you don’t know who he is. I can’t leave him again,” Steve pleaded, looking at Sam’s outstretched hand but not taking it.

“We _do_ know who he is,” Sam said, more firmly. “However, judging by the bruises on your face and neck, he didn’t stop trying to kill you between yesterday and now. Come on, get up.”

Sam grabbed Steve’s wrist and dragged him upright. Bucky saw the movement and was on his feet, too. He lunged at Sam, who released his grip on Steve and barely managed to dodge.

“Do you see what I mean now?!” Sam yelled, ducking a right hook.

“Bucky, stop!” Steve shouted. “Sam’s a friend!”

Unsurprisingly, the Winter Soldier did not stop. There _might_ have been a slight waver, an instant of hesitation, but it also could have been the reaction to a twinge of pain from having been thrown bodily against a very solid wall.

Sam scrambled back to the hole in the wall and beckoned to Steve again.

Steve glanced over at Bucky, the Winter Soldier, made a decision, and dove for the hole.

“I’m gonna kill Pierce for doing this to him,” Steve growled, climbing back to his feet and sprinting down the hallway.

He was followed shortly by the Winter Soldier, charging after him.

Hill looked at Sam and sighed. “Well, this didn’t go quite like I’d thought it would. We’ve got to stop him, he doesn’t know about the plan. We can’t let him get to Pierce before Nick and Natasha finish their part.”

Sam just nodded.


	26. Chapter 26

The Council watched as the three helicarriers began their slow rise into the sky. 

“It’s quite a sight, isn’t it?” Pierce asked. “Once the helicarriers reach altitude, we will no longer have to wait for the next attack to play cleanup. It’s time for us to take a step forward and change our future for the better. If Insight had been ready last year, we could have stopped Aldrich Killian’s ‘Mandarin’ scheme well before he got as far as kidnapping the president. Now, we’ll find the next Killian long before he has a chance to hurt anyone. I propose a toast. To a safer future.”

Pierce raised his glass, but before any of the councilmembers could respond, the door burst open, revealing a very angry Steve Rogers. All eyes turned to him.

“What did they do to him?! What did _you_ do to him?!” Steve said, venom in his voice.

“I’m sorry, what?” Pierce asked, shaking his head slightly. He sounded almost genuinely confused.

“You _know_ who I mean. _Bucky_. What did you do to Bucky?” Steve growled, stalking into the room.

The councilmembers rose from their chairs and moved out of the way.

“Nothing,” Pierce replied calmly. “Bucky? Sergeant Barnes? Your friend? He died in 1944. I was eight years old then, how could I have done anything? Are you feeling alright? You haven’t been acting normally since Fury was killed.”

“You mean since _you_ had Fury killed.”

A murmur of shock and alarm rose from the councilmembers.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Steve turned to the Council. “HYDRA isn’t dead. This man, Alexander Pierce, is their leader. Have you ever heard about the assassin called the Winter Soldier? Yes? Well, he’s real, and Pierce used him to kill Fury.”

“You mentioned your friend, Barnes. How does he tie into all this?” Councilman Rockwell asked. 

“HYDRA found Bucky after he fell and twisted him into the Winter Soldier. They brainwashed him, turned him into a weapon. Zola started it, but when he came to the United States, he brought HYDRA with him. And now Pierce is the head of HYDRA, with everything that entails,” Steve raged.

“If you had any proof of this, you wouldn’t be up here raving at me. First off, I am not HYDRA. That’s an absurd idea. Secondly, the Winter Soldier is a myth, dreamed up during the Cold War by the Soviets to scare Americans. He does not exist,” Pierce said, still calm.

The door opened again and the Winter Soldier stepped through.

“I think he looks pretty real, don’t you?” Steve asked, pointing.

“There’s still no proof that—” Pierce began.

“What are your orders?” The Winter Soldier asked, clearly directing his question to Pierce.

“Oh, for the love of…” Pierce sighed. He paused for a moment then raised his phone. “Soldier: hold. Councilmembers: your biometric ID badges are armed and have been since the moment you pinned them on. One touch of my thumb and each of you ends up with a two-inch hole in your sternum, so I suggest no one moves. And Rogers, that goes for you, too. You move, and their deaths are on your head.”

An extremely uncomfortable silence descended on the Council chamber.

After a very tense 30 seconds, there was a crackle of electricity and Councilwoman Hawley collapsed.

“She didn’t do anything!” Councilman Singh appealed, taking a step forward. 

“Would you believe I didn’t do that?” Pierce said with a shrug. “I guess her badge must have been faulty. However, if any of the rest of you would care to test me…?”

Singh stepped back.

“Good choice. Now all we have to do is wait. Soldier, move to the door. Make sure no one leaves.”

The Winter Soldier turned to move when the doors opened. Hill strode purposefully into the room, gun drawn. Sam followed close on her heels. Everyone turned to look at them.

“Hill? I thought you were arranging a funeral. And who is this?” Pierce asked, looking slightly disconcerted by the thought of being outnumbered and outgunned.

Hill scanned the room, her eyes stopping on Hawley’s prone form. “Natasha!” she shouted.

“Natasha?” Pierce and Steve said, simultaneously.

Pierce followed Hill’s line of sight. “Oh. I should have guessed,” he said and pressed the icon on the screen of his phone.

The three standing councilmen screamed and dropped. Steve made an indistinct noise of pure rage and rushed Pierce. Hill shouted at Steve to stop. Sam moved towards Natasha. The Winter Soldier charged after Steve, base programming dictating that he protect his handler. Councilwoman Hawley sat up slowly and removed her mask and wig. Pierce barely managed to dodge Steve’s bull-rush. The Winter Soldier tackled Steve heavily to the ground and sat on his chest, holding his wrists and pinning him down.

“Well, this is not going quite as planned,” Natasha said, standing back up and brushing off the back of her skirt. She glanced around the room. “Pierce: call off your attack dog or Hill _will_ shoot you. Steve: you are _not_ allowed to kill Pierce, we need him alive.”

“If you need me alive, you can’t shoot me,” Pierce said condescendingly.

“I know plenty of painful but nonlethal places to shoot you,” Hill said confidently.

Steve grunted what might have been an assent, momentarily unable to form distinct words due to having a large man sitting on him.

Pierce set his phone down on the table, but not before quickly tapping the screen a few more times.

“What did you just do?” Hill asked sharply.

“Nothing to concern you,” Pierce answered.

“I think I’ll be the judge of that,” Hill said, stepping cautiously closer to Pierce’s phone.

“It’s not going to explode, or anything. That would just be silly,” Pierce said.

“Yeah?” the phone said.

“Initiate Judgement, scenario three,” Pierce said rapidly to the phone.

Natasha quickly smashed the phone before Pierce could say anything else.

Hill shot Pierce in the shoulder. “What’s ‘Judgement’?” She asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Pierce groaned, pressing his hand to his shoulder. 

“Or, you could tell us now,” Sam said.

Pierce shrugged, winced at moving his injured shoulder, and spoke. “Well, I suppose it can’t hurt. You’ll all be dead as soon as the helicarriers reach altitude. Judgement is a failsafe, if you will, which eliminates HYDRA’s most dangerous enemies within S.H.I.E.L.D. while simultaneously cementing Insight in the public eye as an immediate success. You have all publicly voiced your disapproval of Insight. The World Security Council and I have all publicly supported it. You four attempted a coup, killing the visiting councilmembers and shooting me, but Insight was able to save me as soon as it reached targeting altitude. I’ll explain it all away quite nicely in the aftermath. Which,” Pierce glanced out the window, “should be any time now… what’s that?”

All eyes turned towards the window in time to see a helicopter alight on the Council chamber’s private landing pad. Nick Fury stepped out and strode calmly into the room.

“Good to see all of you are still alive,” Fury said. “Where’s Sharon?”

“I saw her at launch control on the way up,” Hill replied. “She’s good, holding the fort down there.”

Steve made a confused sound and managed to dislodge Bucky from his perch.

“I completed my mission,” the Winter Soldier said, sitting on the floor, more than just a hint of distress in his voice. He turned to Pierce, eyes widening. “But I completed my mission?”

“How…?” Steve began.

“Nick,” Pierce said. “I’m glad to see you.”

“Really? Because I thought you had me killed,” Fury snarked.

“You died!” Steve said, stunned.

“Long story,” Fury said. “I’ll fill you in later.”

“But I completed my mission…” the Winter Soldier said, quietly and seemingly to no one in particular.

“Might as well tell him now,” Pierce said. “By my estimation, the helicarriers have reached altitude and should be taking aim at all of you as we speak.”

“So, quick question,” Hill asked. “You know, before everything goes down. When you initiated Judgement, that included the order to fire as soon as the helicarriers reached altitude, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, no reason. But you might want to take a look out the windows,” Hill said.

The three helicarriers had begun firing at themselves. IN-02 was already listing dangerously, both starboard engines having taken direct hits in the first volley. 

Pierce made a strangled sound of indignation. “What did you do?!” 

“Oh, you know,” Sam said. “Just a little light sabotage. Keeping the world safe. All in a day’s work.”

“Yes, and speaking of work, how about we get around to the work we came here for,” Fury said, speaking over the crowd. “Natasha? If you will?”

“Of course,” Natasha said, walking over to a computer terminal. She began typing.

“What are you doing?” Pierce asked, taking a step towards her. Steve moved forward and grabbed Pierce’s collar, holding him back.

“Disabling security protocols and dumping all of HYDRA’s secrets onto the internet.”

“ _And_ all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s. If you do this, none of your past is going to remain hidden. Are you prepared for the world to see you as you really are?” Pierce said, trying to guilt trip Natasha.

“Are you?” Natasha replied, not phased, or at least not admitting it.

“What are you hoping to accomplish with this little show of force?” Pierce blustered.

“What, you mean exposing HYDRA to the world at large and taking down a bunch of nazis isn’t a big enough goal?” Sam said sarcastically. 

“If HYDRA goes down, so does S.H.I.E.L.D. You can’t separate the two anymore,” Pierce said, grasping at straws.

“Then so be it,” Steve replied. 

“Alright, ready,” Natasha interjected. (“Retinal scanner activated,” the computer intoned.) “Someone scan Pierce.”

“Disabling the encryption is an executive order, it takes two Alpha Level members. And you don’t think we didn’t wipe your clearance from the system, Nick?” Pierce said as Steve held his head up to the scanner.

“I know you erased my password, probably deleted my retinal scan, but if you want to stay ahead of me, Mr. Secretary, you need to keep both eyes open,” Fury said, removing his eyepatch and leaning in to look into the second scanner.

“Alpha Level confirmed. Encryption code accepted. Safeguards removed,” said the computer.

“Done,” Natasha said, typing the final keystroke. She pulled out her phone. “Oh look, and it’s trending.”

“Now what?” Pierce scoffed. “You’ve exposed HYDRA, but ruined S.H.I.E.L.D. The World Security Council is gone. Insight has been destroyed. Do you _really_ believe that you’ve made the world safer? All that you’ve done is just open us up to attack from every terrorist group who was deterred by our strength.”

“We’ll rebuild. It’s what we do,” Fury said.

“And how are you going to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D.? Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”

“When I said ‘we’ I meant _this country_.”

“Oh, well then. Soldier!” Pierce shouted.

There was no reply.

“Soldier?” Pierce looked around the room. The Winter Soldier was gone.

“Bucky?” Steve said, worry rising in his voice. “Pierce! Where is he?!”

“How should I know? I was his handler and his standing order when in my presence was to protect me. He didn’t. He’s defective; always has been. A defective weapon is of no worth to me.”

“He is not _defective_ , he is a human being!” Steve snarled. “Where would he go?”

An alarm began to blare. “Evacuate the building,” the automated voice ordered. “Proceed to your designated assembly zones. Evacuate the building. Proceed—”

“Um, guys?” Sam said, pointing towards the window. One of the disabled helicarriers was drifting dangerously close to the Triskelion, on a probable collision course. “We might want to listen to the nice computer voice and get the hell out of here.”

“Alright, that sounds like our cue,” Fury said. “To the helicopter.” He, Hill, and Natasha turned to go. Sam paused, waiting for Steve.

“Not without Bucky!” Steve insisted, shaking Pierce. “Where would he go?”

“Come on, Steve. We have to get out of here,” Sam said. “Leave him.”

“I can’t leave Bucky again!”

“I meant Pierce.”

“And I meant Bucky.”

Steve turned back to Pierce. “I’ll ask you again, where would he go? There must have been something in the Winter Soldier programming that would tell him where to go in case his current handler was killed or captured or otherwise disabled. Where. Is. Bucky?”

“Steve! We are out of time!” Natasha shouted. “We have to leave now or we are all going to die a _very_ painful death when that helicarrier causes this building to collapse.”

“You all go on without me, I’ll find a way down,” Steve insisted.

“You certainly are tenacious,” Pierce chuckled. He raised his shirt sleeve to his mouth and bit down on the cufflink. “Hail HYDRA.”

Pierce collapsed, Steve losing his grip in surprise. Pierce fell to the floor, tell-tale foam spilling from his mouth. Steve’s shoulders slumped. “Of _course_ HYDRA’s still using the cyanide capsule,” he said quietly to himself.

“Sam! Steve!” Natasha shouted again, holding the door. Fury and Hill were already in the helicopter, waiting and ready to fly.

“We can look for Bucky when we get out of this death-trap,” Sam said, forcefully. “Steve, listen to me.”  
Steve didn’t reply, staring down at Pierce’s lifeless form.

A tremor shook the building as the helicarrier struck a few floors below them, knocking Sam and Steve to the ground. Hill pulled Natasha into the helicopter.

“Go!” Sam shouted at them. “I’ll get Steve. You get in the air and get away from here.”

“You’re sure about this?”

“Yeah. I’ve got wings, I might as well use them.”

The helicopter took off.

“Steve, you’ll thank me for this later,” Sam said. He flipped on the thrusters, grabbed both of Steve’s wrists, and launched himself out the window, dragging Steve behind him. He’d worry about steering properly once he was far enough away from the building. Maybe by then, Steve would come back to his senses and actually be able to hold on on his own. Because damn, he was a lot heavier than he looked.


	27. Chapter 27

“Hey stranger,” Natasha said, dropping by Steve’s apartment a few weeks later.

“Hey Natasha, long time no see. Got your new identities all set?” Steve asked.

Natasha nodded. 

“Steve, why do you have so many identical drinking glasses? One man does not need this many glasses. Are you sure you want them all packed? They’re not even an interesting design. _Two_ people don’t even need this many, and I am not mixing these boring-ass glasses in with mine,” came Sam’s voice from the kitchen.

“Yes, please pack them,” Steve called back.

“Moving out?” Natasha asked.

“Well, with S.H.I.E.L.D. gone, and HYDRA back, it makes sense for me to move back to Avengers Tower,” Steve said, taping shut a box of books. “Also, with S.H.I.E.L.D. gone, the Tower has the best resources now to help find Bucky.”

“You’re not gonna stop looking, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Steve, you don’t even know what state of mind he was in when he disappeared. Are you sure you want to find him?”

“You have to ask?”

Natasha sighed and pulled a brown folder with Cyrillic writing on it out of her shoulder bag. She set it on top of the box Steve had just finished.

“What’s this?” Steve asked, picking it up.

“I had to call in a few favors for this,” Natasha explained. “Please don’t do anything stupid.”

“I would never,” Steve said with a grin. 

Sam snorted with laughter, popping out of the kitchen to smack Steve lightly in the back of the head with a wadded up ball of newspaper.

“I mean it, Steve,” Natasha said, the humor draining out of her voice. “You’re _not_ going to like what’s in this folder. I know you have to do this, but please. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Alright, I promise,” Steve said, picking up the folder and opening it.


End file.
